


The world's the same. You're the one who's different.

by Moonless_Sky



Category: The 100 (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: AU, F/F, F/M, Nephilim, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Swords, Swords & Sorcery, Vampires, Warlocks, Were-Creatures, but itll get there, i really dont know how to tag im sorry, like reeeeealy slow, mortal instruments AU, oh i just realized
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-25 07:17:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16656661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonless_Sky/pseuds/Moonless_Sky
Summary: Lexa Woods sees something that she wasn't meant to, and is sucked into a world of magic, werewolves, vampires, demons, and angels. And to top it all off, her entire life is a lie.





	1. There is no pretending

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for reading. I've had this idea for a while now I've only just been able to put it into words. I know that it might not make much sense, and I'm probably not very good at writing these characters, but bear with me. The title of this is from the movie adaptation of City of Bones, and loathe as i am to admit it, it's a decent enough quote. Decent movie quote aside, this fic will follow the events of the books.  
> Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> EDIT: You should probably read The Mortal Instruments or this will be kind of confusing. Or don't, it's your choice.

Lexa Woods has seen some things in her life, let me tell you what.

She’s very young—almost too young to remember—when she sees her first monster.

Like every kid, right? Every kid sees monsters. Under their beds, in their closets, in the streets because they’re too young to understand that everyone dresses like a monster for one day of the year, because she’s a tiny baby and what sane human would _do that_.

Wrong.

Lexa’s monsters are real. _Very real_.

The memory is still vivid, even after more than a decade.

 _She’s curled up in her mother’s arms when she sees it. Her mother is walking through a densely packed city; buildings stretch up and touch the sky and the din of everyday life is so deafening and baby Lexa wonders why everyone can’t just be quiet. And then she sees_ it _. It looks like everyone else, but it isn’t. It turns its head and somehow, impossibly, it meets Lexa’s eyes. She smiles, and it smiles back. And when it smiles it bares needle-sharp fangs and its smile is full of malice. And Lexa screams. She can’t form words so she just screams and cries, and her mother coos and whispers calming words into her ear but it doesn’t work. When she looks back, the man with the fangs is gone. A moment later, she can barely remember what had made her so upset, until she grows older and remembers all over again._

Lexa is eight when she sees more monsters. She and her mother are walking through Central Park and Lexa insists on climbing over everything she can climb over, and her mother is telling her to be careful. She scrambles over top of one of the boulders and sees a man with blue skin and multi-colored sparks spilling from his fingers.

She doesn’t scream this time, but the shock makes her lose her footing and now she’s tumbling back down the boulder. Her mother rushes to her, looking her over for injury and saying _I told you to be careful_.

And Lexa tells her mother about the blue man and her mother’s face goes white for a moment until she lets out a shaky breath and laughs uneasily and murmurs something about it being _almost time to go to Murphy again_ almost too low for Lexa to hear.

Lexa doesn’t see anything again until after she turns fourteen. Her mother had taken them both to Florida, away from the hustle and bustle and constant movement of New York City. She decides she wants to get certified to scuba dive.

During a dive in the open water Lexa looks down into the deep black abyss and sees something _writhing_ , something with too many tentacles and covered in needles and barbs.

She doesn’t scream. She can’t, around the rebreather in her mouth. But she has nightmares for months after the dive.

Lexa has seen some shit. But it all pales in comparison to what she has just witnessed.

\---

Lexa hadn’t always been one for lots social interaction, so she thought it was really strange when Lincoln, her best friend, showed up at the apartment Lexa and her mother shared, threw some clothes at her, and said he was taking Lexa to a nightclub when Lexa was finally dressed.

“It’ll be fun!” Lincoln said, “Besides, you need to unwind.”

Lexa huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her face. But still she let Lincoln drag her out of the apartment and down the street.

The line for the club extended a short ways down the street, and she and Lincoln settled in at the end.

Lexa felt awkward and out of place. Everyone else was dressed to the nines—suits and ties, heels and dresses. And there Lexa was, dressed in only a hunter green button-down shirt, skinny jeans, and boots.

When she told Lincoln she wanted to leave, Lincoln just laughed.

“It’ll be fuuun, Lex. Besides, we’ve been waiting for too long already; no quitting now!”

“I can’t even drink, Linc. What the fuck am I supposed to do her?”

“Dance!” Lincoln responded emphatically. “It’s a club, what else would you do?”

“I don’t dance,Linc. I _can’t_ dance. You’ve known me for eight years. Have I ever been able to dance?”

Lincoln waved his hand in a dismissing manner. “It’ll be fine. You’ll learn on the fly. Who knows,” he nudged Lexa conspiratorially, “You might meet someone you like.”

Lexa laughed at that. “No, I might meet someone _you_ like.”

The inside of the club is pure batshit crazy. There are strobe lights, and flashing colors, and so many bodies that they’re all one big undulating mass. The music is almost incomprehensible; the only thing discernible about it being the thumping bass beat.

Lexa takes one look at it and tries to backpedal but she hears Lincoln laughing, feels Lincoln shoving her forward and now she’s in the middle of the dance floor and she’s touching so many people and so many people are _touching_ her and finally she makes it through and out the other side.

Lexa feels lightheaded and leans against a nearby wall. She is going to murder Lincoln the next time she sees her for putting her through that, but for now she needs to focus on not falling over.

She feels a light tap on her shoulder and looks up to see a stranger with light, curly hair.

“I’m Costia!” the stranger yells of the noise. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting but you seemed like you could use some help!”

“Lexa!” she yells back, and “No! I’m…I just…I needed a minute.”

Costia smiles knowingly. “It’s fine!” She replied. “Come with me! I know some place quieter!”

Lexa straightened up and let Costia take her hand. Costia pulled her towards the back of the club and into a hallway that lead to bathrooms and a coatroom.

“That looked pretty serious.” Costia said once they could both hear again. “You alright?”

“Yeah.” Lexa responded. “It just…surprised me. I don’t really go to clubs.”

“You could’ve chosen a better place to come for your first time.”

Lexa nods, suddenly breathless. It strikes her then that Costia is very nice looking. And they’re both very close to each other. Lexa lets her eyes drift down to Costia’s lips, perfect and symmetrical. It wouldn’t take much to just…

Lexa shakes her head and jolts back. “I need to…” she points in the direction of the bathroom and stumbles into it.

Lexa splashes water on her face and looks into the mirror. Her pupils are blown wide and she can see her emotions reflected back at her.

 _Maybe Lincoln was right._ Lexa thinks.

She mentally prepares herself and steps out of the bathroom, disappointed when Costia isn’t there.

She hears a pained scream come from the coatroom and hesitantly walks toward it. She crouches behind a coat rack and peeks out. In the center of the room are four people. One of them is Costia, but she’s being held by a boy and a girl who look so alike that they’re probably siblings. The fourth is a girl, with blonde hair pulled back into a braid. She’s wearing a black jacket over a black shirt with black jeans, and a belt slung low around her hips. The belt has a variety of different knives and pouches, Lexa notices with a shock.

But as Lexa watches, the girl gets close to Costia and is about to say something, but Costia’s neck extends, and her jaw unhinges, and it latches on to the girls arm. The two siblings jerk Costia back and the girl pulls back, cradling her arm.

The girl turns toward Lexa and swears and Lexa sees her face, and she’s beautiful. Her face is round, with a dimple chin, and a scar crosses over the right side of her lips. She swears again and faces away from Lexa.

“You know,” the girl says to Costia in a slightly accented voice, “This wasn’t going to be personal. But you just ruined my favorite coat. So now it is.”

She grabs something from her belt, like a knife handle, and whispers something to it. It extends into a glowing blade, which she unceremoniously drives into Costia’s chest.

Costia convulses, and the twins let her go. She falls to the ground and writhes, and then as Lexa watches, she disintegrates; fades until there’s nothing left.

Lexa has to suppress the urge to scream.

The blonde girl hisses and cradles her injured arm again. She turns to the boy.

“Bell? You gonna _Iratze_ me or just let me suffer?”

The boy smiles and shrugs and produces a small pen from his belt. “I’m not really partial to either.”

He draws on the skin of the blonde girl’s injured arm.

“I might as well do a glamour too.” He says, and then the three of them walk from the room. Lexa throws herself against the coat rack, trying to be invisible, and they stroll past her.

After a minute, Lexa finally steps out into the center of the room and looks around for any evidence of what she had just seen.

 _What the fuck_ did _I just see?_


	2. Try me on a day that doesn't end in y

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which i criminally abuse italics and the Em dash.  
> Also some plot happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Kane is Luke, for anyone who cares.  
> Also the title of this chapter and chapter 1 are both quotes from Jace because his quotes are wonderful and I found a list of them.  
> Also also I'm trying to be as true to the book as I can, but i'm going to try to avoid copying things verbatim from the books. The whole point of writing this is to make it my own. So events will happen the same and different.  
> So thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!

Lexa stands and stares at the place a person had straight-up fucking _dissolved_ for a solid five minutes before Lincoln comes, towing a large bouncer in a too-small shirt behind him.

She realizes after a moment that Lincoln is saying something, so she just blinks and he says it again.

“Hello? Earth to Lexa? What are you doing back here? Why are you just…staring?” Now his hands are on her face, checking her over for anything strange in a very older brother-like move. “Did someone give you something?”

His last question snaps Lexa out of her reverie, and she shakes her head furiously.

“What? No! No, I just…I needed some air.”

Lincoln laughs sheepishly. “I’ll take some of the blame for that.”

Lexa punches him in the arm. “Goddamn right you will.”

Lincoln laughs again and rubs his arm. It’s silent for a while before he speaks again.

“When I couldn’t see you, I got worried.” He says. “I—“

“Oh come here,” Lexa says, opening her arms, “You big teddy bear.”

Lincoln embraces her back, and they hug each other until they hear someone clearing their throat near them. They both whip their heads towards sound. The slightly uncomfortable looking bouncer that Lincoln had dragged with him was rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

The bouncer clears his throat again and looks at Lexa. “You alright?”

Lexa nods.

“Good.” The bouncer replies. “That means I can leave.”

He shuffles away and leaves Lexa and Lincoln standing awkwardly next to each other in the coatroom.

Lincoln clears his throat.

So does Lexa.

Lexa kicks the ground and grinds the heel of her boot into the shitty crumbling tile.

Lincoln rubs the back of his neck and coughs.

And then he asks; “Do you want to go?” at the same time as she says “Can we go?”

It makes Lexa remember why they’re best friends. Lincoln can still read her like an open book.

They leave the club as fast as they can and start walking in the general direction of Lexa and her mother’s apartment.

Lexa is talking to Lincoln as they walk down an almost deserted street when she sees the blonde girl again.

It brings up a confusing mess of emotions knotted within Lexa. On one hand, Lexa had watched her _murder_ someone with a fucking glowing sword. But on the other hand, Lexa hadn’t slept in too long and her useless gay mind can only concentrate on the fact that _ooh, she’s pretty_.

Luckily something is there that lets Lexa tamp down the emotions. The blonde girl is being carried between the two siblings that were with her before, which would normally be funny because of how much trouble the stark difference in height between the three of them is causing—the brother is a giant, the sister is small, and the blond girl is somewhere in between.

Normally, it’d be funny, but the blonde girl looks like she’s dying. She’s pale, and draped limply of the shoulders of the siblings, and bleeding profusely from one of her arms. The blonde girl looks over at them, at Lexa, and catches her eyes.

Lexa looks over to Lincoln to see if he sees them too, but he’s staring at the same spot she is and she realizes with a start that _no, he can’t_.

“You’ve been acting weird all night.” Lincoln says, laying a hand on her shoulder. “You sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just tired.” _I’m not OK what the fuck is happening?_

Lincoln laughs. “I can tell. Let’s get you home.”

They keep walking.

Lincoln drops her off at her house, and Lexa sees a light on in the window. She tiptoes futilely up the steps and slips through the door.

She’s almost home free until she hears a cough from the living room. She turns around and walks solemnly to stand before her mother, resplendent in flannel pajamas and hair pulled back into a messy bun.

Her mother sets the book she’s reading down to look up at Lexa. And _thank god_ she doesn’t look angry, just concerned. Although Hannah Woods has never been truly angry with her child.

“Alexandria Woods,” she says in her mom voice, “What did I tell you about staying out this late?”

Lexa shrugs and smiles, “To be sneakier about it?”

Hannah lets out a laugh, a loud “Ha” that sounds like it was surprised out of her.

“I distinctly remember what I told you was ‘don’t’.”

Lexa just shrugs again and her mother sighs.

“I’m glad you’re home safe.” Her mother says. “Now get some rest. I have something important to tell you and I’d rather you be cognizant enough to remember it.”

Lexa nods gratefully to her mother and stumbles to her room, kicking off her boots and flopping face down on the bed.

\---

Lexa wakes up to sun in her face and to her phone chirping obnoxiously. Her ringtone had been good when she first picked it, but now it was sounding like the actual devil. Lexa flailed a hand around until she hit her phone, bringing it up to her face and mashing buttons until it shut up.

The text is from Lincoln.

 **12:40pm  
**Coffee in half an hour

 **12:42pm  
**be ready nerd

She groans, because Lincoln still feels bad about last night and he knows that coffee is the way to her heart. And it’s still too early in the morning, but _damn_ his bribe isn’t going to work.

Well, according to her phone it isn’t early in the morning anymore, but Lincoln’s bribe is still going to work.

Lexa almost literally rolls out of bed and stumbles down the hall towards her kitchen.

Her mother is already there, hands and clothes covered in paint. She looks up and smiles as Lexa enters. She sets the many paintbrushes she’s holding down on the table and sits, gesturing for Lexa to sit across from her.

“So,” her mother says, “Do you remember how I said I had something important to tell you last night?”

Lexa nods, trying to pay attention and her mother continues.

“Well…you remember Marcus, right?”

Lexa perks up at the mention of Marcus Kane. A longtime family friend, he had been a part of Lexa’s life for so long that he was more of a father figure then her real father had ever been. Lexa thinks anything involving him can’t be bad news.

“Kane and I have been talking, and we’ve decided that you and I are going to move out to the country for the summer. You remember his farm…it’ll be perfect.”

Lexa was wrong. Lexa was _very_ wrong.

It isn’t _bad_ news, per se. But it’s so like her mother to spring this on her like this.

It’s all too much, so Lexa does the one thing she can think of; she runs.

Her mother calls after her, but she’s already out the door, and running right into Lincoln and now they’re both tumbling down the steps and landing in a heap.

Lexa extricates herself from him and starts to walk briskly down the sidewalk, and it’s still chilly and there’s still frost on the ground, but Lexa doesn’t care. Lincoln is taller than her, so it doesn’t take him long to catch up. He grabs her shoulder and spins her around.

“Lexa! What’s wrong?”

“ _Coffee_.” She forces out as an answer. And Lincoln knows that he can’t push her, that she’ll just shut him out if he does, so he doesn’t pry.

They get coffee and Lexa orders it as big as she can and blacker than tar. Her and Lincoln sit and she downs half of it in one long gulp before she slams her hands down on the table and starts to talk to him.

“My mom is moving us out to Kane’s for the summer.”

Lincoln takes it in stride but Lexa can see he’s been caught off guard.

“That’s great! That seems like a good thing. Is it a good thing? It’s not a good thing, is it? I—”

“ _No_ ,” Lexa cuts off his ramble. “It’s fine, it’s good. I just…I _hate_ that my mother waited until now to dump this on me. I hate it, and she knew that it would make me angry. And she still did it.” He’s about to say something but she bowls right over him. “Have I ever told you how little I know about her? About her entire family? I know I’m barely sixteen but she doesn’t tell me shit.”

She takes a deep breath and another long drink of the coffee, and the scalding heat on her throat helps center her a little.

“If it helps, I saw part of a cool looking tattoo your mom has.”

Lexa fixed him with her most withering glare. “That does the exact opposite of help. And Hannah Woods? With a tattoo? Please.”

“You have a tattoo you hypocrite, so I’m just calling it like I see it. And I—” he doesn’t finish his sentence, and when Lexa stares at him she sees that he’s looking behind her. So she turns around and it’s the blonde girl from the club, the one Lincoln couldn’t see, but it’s obvious he can see her now.

The girl is in almost the same outfit as she was the night before, except she’s traded in the probably ruined jacket for a black peacoat, and her hair is pulled back into a simple ponytail.

She has her hands in her pockets and is just waiting, but Lexa can’t tell for what.

“Could I talk to you for a minute?” She asks, and now that she’s closer, Lexa can hear more of the accent in her voice.

Lexa looks back at Lincoln, and he gives her a knowing look for some reason and standing up, saying “I’ll leave you two alone for a while” and walking away. Lexa really wishes he would have stayed, because this girl scares her a little bit.

“My name is Clarke. Clarke Lightwood.” The girl speaks first, in a low voice, “And I know what you saw.”

And that’s it. Lexa freezes, unsure of what to do. Does she bolt or does she deny?

Neither, it turns out.

“I didn’t kill anyone.” The girl says.

“ _Yes_ you did.” Lexa retorts, with more venom than she intended.

“No, I killed a _thing_ , a demon. An It.”

“A _demon_? Are you joking? What sort of sick, twisted fantasy world do you live in that lets you believe that?”

The ghost of a smile crosses over Clarke’s lips. “The real world, unfortunately. You’ve seen things, haven’t you? Things that should only exist in story books.”

Lexa remembers vividly the things she’s seen; the man with the fangs, the man with blue skin, the _thing_ from the deep. And Lexa knows deep in her heart that Clarke is right.

Clarke is staring at her. “You don’t have to answer; I can see it on your face. Think of it like this, there are two worlds; the Mundane world, the world you live in, full of coffee shops and relationship drama and teen angst, and the Shadow world, of demons and vampires and werewolves and angels. You live in the mundane, but you’re not human.”

Lexa felt her heart stop.

“Not human? Like a demon?”

Clark let out a deep belly laugh, startling some of the people near her.

“No,” she replied, “Not like a demon. In fact, almost the opposite. You’re what’s called a Nephilim; half-human and half-angel. We’re called Shadowhunters.”

“So I have—“

“—Angel blood.” Clarke finished for her. “The fact you could see me at all in the club is proof enough.”

Lexa stands up and moves towards the door. Clarke calls after her but she stumbles outside and leans against a wall, trying and failing to catch her breath. Her phone vibrates and her hands shake so much she almost drops it when she answers brings it up to her ear.

“Lexa!” it’s her mother’s voice, full of panic and fear, and Lexa can hear the sounds of chaos over the line, “Thank god! Don’t come home, whatever you do. Do NOT come home. Find Marcus, find him and tell him that “he” has found me.”

“Mom…what—“

“Find Marcus! Find him and tell him! And whatever you do, don’t come—“

It takes a moment for Lexa to realize that the line has gone dead. The dial tone is like a death knell in Lexa’s ears. She tries to call her mother back once, twice, more times than she can count, but it doesn’t work.

Lexa feels a hand on her shoulder. Clarke had finally came out of the café and she was holding a small black object in her hand; a phone.

Lexa snatches it out of her hands. “I need to use your phone.”

“It’s not a phone.” She replies, but Lexa already knows it. It’s too small, and it’s buttons all have weird symbols on them.

“It’s a sensor.” Clarke says, like that makes any sense to Lexa.

For the second time in the same day, Lexa does the only thing she can think of; she runs.

\---

Her entire house is trashed.

All of the couch cushions and pillows look like they’ve been stabbed and gutted. Every picture frame is smashed, every picture that isn’t missing is torn to shreds. Every plate, bowl, and glass is smashed so thoroughly it’s hard to tell what is what.

Every room is the same, and Lexa feels desperation and fear rise up inside her.

“Mom?! _MOM!?_ ” She screams, and she can hear the raw fear and anguish rise up inside of her.

And then she hears a gurgling sound come from the end of the hall, and she turns and sees something straight from her nightmares. Like the monster from the deep, except it’s on land and it’s bounding towards her on long muscled legs. She’s so caught off guard that she doesn’t react when it reaches her, knocks her down, and locks its jaws around her arm. She beats at it with her free arm until it lets go and snarls.

Lexa backpedals away but it catches up with her. When she throws a punch, it latches its jaws around her fist and she _screams_. She clenches the fist inside the monster and feels something hard in her hand; Clarke’s “sensor”.

Lexa grits her teeth and forces her arm further, feeling the monster’s teeth tear her skin, making cuts that are sure to scar.

Eventually she’s jammed the sensor as far as it can go, so she rips her arm free. It’s got a series of bite marks running down almost its whole length, along with deep cuts that are leaking blood. The rest of the skin is a torn, bloody mess and Lexa _knows_ she needs to get to a hospital.

She stands up and braces her uninjured arm against a wall.

_Just need to make it to the door._

She doesn’t.

Just a few feet away, and her entire world tilts on its axis. Her hand falls away from the wall and she sways and falls, expecting to meet the hard tile floor.

But she doesn’t.

Someone catches her and lowers her gently to the floor. It’s Clarke. Of course it’s Clarke. She must’ve followed Lexa home.

Lexa tries to speak, but only manages a pained whimper. Clarke is speaking an uninterrupted stream of profanity, Lexa feels a stinging sensation along one of her forearms, like someone stabbing her with a needle, almost like a tattoo, but then she feels numbness spread out from her arm until she feels like she’s floating.

Clarke stops swearing, and says one more thing before Lexa drifts off.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

It gives Lexa more comfort than it ought to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so i'm making last names be from the book where it's applicable.  
> No that's a lie, it's where i feel like it. So Clarke is a Lightwood, as are the Blakes, and Lexa's real last name is the same as Clary's in the books.  
> Whatever, thanks for reading!  
> If you liked it, consider leaving a comment or kudos, because i crave validation through numbers.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone confused:  
> Lexa is Clary  
> Clarke is Jace  
> Octavia is Isabelle  
> Bellamy is Alec  
> Murphy is Magnus (bc why not)  
> Other characters are other characters. I'll leave it up to you to speculate.  
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
